Bitter Caterpillar Strike Grows More Corrosive, Costly

Office, Temporary Workers Fill In

Union Says Injuries Rising

High above, where a parts-carrying conveyor belt busily hummed and snaked through the cavernous factory, things seem unchanged.

But something very different was happening down on the floor of the Caterpillar Inc. factory in suburban Montgomery, near Aurora.

Here was a 35-year-old accountant in workshirt and overalls attaching gadgets to a machine. Three months ago when she started on the job, she couldn't lift a 40-pound chunk of metal. Now, she can.

Here was a 39-year-old business analyst putting finishing touches on a tractor. He would put in 12 hours, moving to a new tractor every 1 1/2 hours. Then he would work another two hours at his old desk job late into the night. Tomorrow it would be the same.

Here was a welder from Mobile, Ala., who leapt at a $13-an-hour temporary job with about 32 hours of overtime weekly. "If I wasn't working here, somebody else would be," he calmly said, adding that crossing a union picket line doesn't bother him.

Three months since 13,800 United Auto Worker union members struck, the poker game between Peoria-based Caterpillar, the world's largest heavy-equipment builder, and the UAW has become more intense, more corrosive, more costly and less likely to end soon.

There have been no talks, and none are expected.

The current dispute also involves unfair labor charges, a situation that could drag on for months in legal hassling over the 100 complaints filed against Caterpillar by the UAW and upheld by the National Labor Relations Board.

Meanwhile, neighbors and friends, divided by the dispute, have become bitter rivals. White-collar workers in the factories long for their desk jobs. UAW members who abandoned the strike fret about the return to work of their picket-line tormentors.

Determined not to lose, the UAW boosted strike pay last month to $300 a week from $100. Counting the $600 a month in health-care costs it also picks up, the union may be spending as much as $12.3 million monthly to keep the strike alive. UAW officials say their strike fund has about $900 million.

Ultimately who wins will matter far beyond the UAW, Caterpillar and the Illinois communities where Caterpillar is the big employer.

What the union and company have really been squabbling over for three years is the balance of power between them, an issue unions and companies nationwide must be watching closely.

Citing global competition and its extensive foreign sales, Caterpillar wants to undo such bargaining basics as a contract linked to agreements with similar American manufacturers. The UAW has adamantly refused.

Disagreement over pattern bargaining was a key issue when the UAW staged a walkout against Caterpillar in 1991. That walkout collapsed after 162 days, in April 1992, when the company threatened to hire replacement workers.

"It's like any other strike. Eventually, we are going to get to a point and put this behind us," said Jerry Brown, president of UAW Local 974 in East Peoria.

No other major American manufacturer in such good financial health as Caterpillar has waged such a battle with a union. Nor has any other company mounted such an attempt in recent years to run its plants during a strike.

"If you would have asked five years ago whether we could have maintained our factories, I would have said no. But I was wrong, dead wrong," said Wayne Zimmerman, Caterpillar's vice president for human affairs.

Indeed, he and other company officials are convinced they are winning. They also strongly believe their battle is a proper one against a misguided union that would hold the company back from its long-term plans.

"We are proud we can do this," said Terry Thorstenson, Caterpillar's public affairs director. There is a feeling among company executives that they should not "throw in the towel," he added.

Caterpillar has boosted imports from its overseas plants, shifted work to non-union plants and sent work from struck factories to non-union suppliers.

Thousands of white-collar workers, some of whom have never held a wrench, are doing factory work. Retirees have been called back. Caterpillar is using newly hired workers and temporary workers. They all work long hours and on weekends.

They have been joined by about 4,000 UAW members who have crossed the union's picket lines, according to the company. UAW officials dispute the figure, saying it is less than 3,000.

The fact so many have broken ranks is a wound for the union, although UAW officials casually shrug it off.

"It is not so much the numbers that cross over, but the quality of the individual. Most of them fall below average for job quality," said Al Weygand, bargaining chairman for UAW Local 145 in Montgomery.

The UAW insists Caterpillar has faced major production, quality and safety problems. The company denies such claims and adds that it is below prestrike production levels at only two locations, East Peoria and Decatur.

Most Wall Street as well as industry experts say Caterpillar appears to be satisfying its customers.